1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a network system, a method for offering incentive, a server apparatus, and a recording medium storing a program, for offering incentives to network service users.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various web sites are on WWW (World Wide Web) to provide various kinds of information. Of such the web sites, there are commercial sites which collect charges for advertisement or information on the sites. In general, advertisement fees may depend on the number of accesses. Some of the sites determines information charges based on the number of persons who can receive information, instead of data amount. Under such the situation, providing information to many terminals, that is, getting more users of the information providing service is preferable matter for managing a commercial site.
In order to get more users, some of the sites offer incentive to the users to access the sites by preparing prizes. Sending e-mails to members of predetermined groups, applying links to other web sites to the web page, etc. have been major ways to get more users.
However, since the prizes are determined by the information provider, some of the users do not have motivation to access the sites if they are not interested in the prizes. A few new users are obtained by offering incentive in such the manner.
The aim of the conventional method is to entice users of other information services into joining the target service. A method wherein a member of the service entice others to join the service has not been made. Moreover, only a few users enjoy benefits of the incentive.